


Life is but a dream

by QueenofSchmoop



Category: Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempt at Humor, Canon Het Relationship, Cliche!fic, Concussions, F/M, M/M, Male Slash, Mild Hurt/Comfort, plastic toys kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 08:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13994661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenofSchmoop/pseuds/QueenofSchmoop
Summary: Ken gets conked on the head and has the weirdest dream….or is it?





	Life is but a dream

It was another beautiful day in Malibu. Ken was heading over to Barbie’s house to show her his newest invention for her. An automatic shoe cleaner! He was almost to the door when he saw Ryan coming over. He scowled. 

“What are you doing?”

“I was going to serenade Barbie with the new song I wrote for her.” Ryan looked scornfully at the machine in his arms. “Another stupid invention?”

“They’re not stupid! Barbie likes them.” He had a moment’s doubt. What if they were stupid? What if Barbie hated them? 

“Whatever. Just get out of the way.” Ryan shoved Ken aside and went to ring the doorbell. 

“Hey! I was here first.” 

They got into a tussling match and the invention went flying. He was so busy triumphantly ringing the doorbell he didn’t even see it come back down and land on his head. He went down. 

When he came to it was to Barbie standing over him, looking concerned. “Ken, are you all right? Maybe I should go get my doctor’s outfit and kit. Being a doctor was my 13th favorite career.”

“I’m all right.” He started to get up and then noticed that a very male hand was holding his. He looked over and saw Ryan, an expression of great concern on his face. “Ryan?”

“Ken, are you sure you’re all right?” He really sounded concerned. 

“Um, no. I think I might be hallucinating.”

“Hallucinating!” Barbie and Ryan sounded aghast. “I should definitely go get my medical bag,” Barbie cried, running into the house. He heard her call out for her sisters but his attention was focused on Ryan. 

“What are you seeing, Ken?”

“You. Holding my hand. And being nice to me.”

Ryan looked puzzled. “Um, all that is real.”

“But you hate me!”

“What? I do not! Ken, you think I hate you?”

Skipper and Chelsea had come out. “Ken!” Chelsea cried. “Why would you say such a thing?”

Ken looked at her. “Cause he’s always hated me. Like Raquelle hates Barbie.”

Everyone stared at him. “Raquelle is Barbie’s best friend in the world. Except maybe you.” Chelsea looked at Skipper. “We need Barbie.”

“I’m here!” She reappeared, wearing her doctor’s coat, bag in hand. “What’s going on?”

Ryan looked at her, eyes wide as they could get. “He says I hate him and that Raquelle hates you!”

“What? But she’s my best friend! Outside of you, that is, Ken. Why---?”

“I think he’s got a concussion,” Ryan said, smoothing Ken’s forehead. “Can you check him out, Barbie?”

“Sure.” She proceeded to do just that. “He seems fine.”

“Okay, if you’re all messing around, it’s not funny anymore.” Ken went to stand up. Ryan helped him and kept his arm around his waist. “Dude, what are you doing?”

Ryan looked like he was about to cry. “Ken, what’s going on?”

“I should ask you the same question. Whatever game you’re playing--”

“Why would I play games?” Ryan looked at Barbie. “I think you should take another look. Something’s obviously wrong with him. He doesn’t seem to remember I’m his boyfriend!”

Ken fell over. 

“Ken!”

“I’m your what?!” He shouted from the ground. 

“My boyfriend,” Ryan told him again, helping him up. 

“That can’t be. I’m dating Barbie.”

Everyone looked at Barbie. “Ken…? You’re gay, honey. We tried dating but you couldn’t keep your eyes off Ryan, remember. The day you finally got together was such a fabulous day.”

“I know. Are you saying you don’t even remember it?” Ryan asked. 

“No!” He explained what he ‘knew’, what he remembered. “So if this is some sort of silly game, then can we please stop?”

“It’s not a game, Ken,” Skipper said, typing on her computer. “You seem to have sort form of amnesia.”

“No, if he had amnesia he wouldn’t remember anyone. He remembers us but it’s all wrong,” Barbie mused. 

“You really don’t remember _us_?” Ryan asked, forlorn. 

Ken felt bad. “No, sorry, I don’t. Have we been together long? I mean,--”

“Tomorrow was going to be our 6 month anniversary of the day we first revealed our feelings for each other.” He sighed. “I wrote you a song and everything.”

“You’re still a musician then.”

Ryan nodded. 

“I think we should all go inside and have some cupcakes,” Barbie said then led the way to the spotless kitchen. She pushed a button and cupcakes appeared. 

“So, how do we fix this?” Ken asked as he munched on one. 

“What do you mean?”

“How do we get me back to my world?” A thought struck him. “What if the Ken from this world is in my Malibu? What if he’s hitting on that Ryan? OMG, when I get back Ryan’s going to hit me!”

“That Ryan sounds like a jerk,” Skipper muttered then whispered ‘sorry’ to their Ryan. 

“How do we know you got switched?” Chelsea asked. “What if you’re our Ken but just with scrambled brains?”

“Oh, I’m not sure I know how to fix scrambled brains!” Barbie exclaimed. 

“My brains are not scrambled. Look, just give me some time to go home and build a machine to take me back to my world. I promise I’ll send your Ken back to you too.” He started to get up. Ryan got up too. He looked at him. “What are you doing?”

“Going with you.”

“Why?”

“To keep an eye on you.”

Ken shrugged. They went to his house, where he tinkered as Ryan sat around brooding. “So, we’re really a couple?”

“Yeah.”

“I just….it’s weird.”

“I don’t think so.”

Ken shrugged and lifted a piece of machine up. After staring at it for a half second he put it back down. “I mean, you don’t even like me.”

“Maybe not in your world. But here, I always have.”

“What?” He dropped his tool on his foot. “Ow!”

“You all right, Ken?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Can we get back to that whole ’you’ve always liked me’ thing?”

“I had a crush on you since about forever. But you always seemed to like Barbie.”

“I thought you did too.”

“Just as a friend. She and my sis being best friends and all, it felt too much like dating my sister the one time we went out. A blonde version, I mean.”

Ken laughed. “I can see that. So what happened?”

“You were dating Barbie. But you didn’t seem happy. Then Barbie came over to talk to Raquelle, saying you guys had broken up. I overheard her tell sis why.”

“Why?”

“You--I mean Ken--had told her that you were gay.”

“Ow! Dang, dropped another tool.”

“Need me to kiss your boo-boo?”

Another clang then, “no!” Ken had to lower his voice from a girl’s range. “No, I’m good. Keep telling your story.”

“Well, after I found out, I went over to see you. I wasn’t sure what to say at first then I just blurted out my feelings. I told you--him--that I wasn’t hitting on you--him. That I could just be his--your--his friend.”

Ken popped his head out from where he was working. “Wow, you really are different from my Ryan. He might have said that but he would have been scheming underneath. To get Barbie, I mean.”

Ryan smiled, a bit wistfully. “Well, I meant it. And we did become friends. I mean, we were before that but now really close. Then one night I couldn’t help it and I kissed you.”

“Ow!” Ken popped back up, rubbing his head. 

“You kissed me back. Said you’d realized your feelings for me had changed and that we should date. We’ve been together ever since.”

“Don’t you worry I was just rebounding with you?” 

“No.” He sounded so sure. 

“Huh.” He went back to work. Soon it was done. “It’s done!”

“Are you sure? Will it work?”

“Great! Your inventions never have any problems, Ken!”

Looking a bit dubious, Ken and Ryan took it over to Barbie’s dream house. “Okay, thanks for everything, guys. I promise I’ll send the other Ken home right away.” He hugged everyone, then went to Ryan. He paused, then hugged him too. 

Ryan hugged him tight back. 

Ken hit a button. There was a loud noise and then--

“Ken! Ken!”

“Barbie, get your medical bag!”

“On it! I’ll be back in half an hour!”

“Oh, my head.” Ken sat up. He saw Ryan right next to him. “Which Ryan are you?”

“What? There’s only one Ryan, the original music God, doll boy. Unless you’re talking about my cardboard replicas, then there are thousands.”

“So you’re not my boyfriend?”

“What?!” Everyone shrieked. 

“Um, nothing.” But soon he was telling the whole story, to everyone--even Barbie, who had returned. 

“Sounds like you had a dream.”

“More like a nightmare!” Raquelle squealed. “Barbie and I? BFF’s?!”

Ryan had been strangely quiet. Eventually everyone went with Barbie to go look at her other former career clothes, except Ryan and Ken. 

“We were really boyfriends in your dream?”

Ken noticed Ryan’s voice didn’t sound angry. Just puzzled and soft. “Fraid so, dude. Sorry. Don’t know where that came from.” He rubbed his perfectly gelled hair and blushed. “I’m gonna go catch up with Barbie and the girls. You coming?”

“I’ll be there in a bit.” 

As Ken walked off he could have sworn he heard Ryan mutter something that sounded like “too bad it wasn’t real.” He shook it off, chastised himself for his own thoughts, and went running after Barbie. 

 

End

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if I need to change/add to the tags. Thanks!


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